This invention relates to a building structure and, in particular, to a building that is ideally suited for storing particulate material.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,820,292 to Fitzpatrick and 4,285,174 to Knight there are disclosed cone shaped buildings that are specifically designed to house road sand or salt. These buildings, because of their shape, are difficult to erect. Loading and unloading material into and out of the building is also sometimes difficult. The inside walls of the buildings typically consist of thin plywood sheeting that can deteriorate rapidly when salt or wet sand is stacked thereagainst. The relatively weak walls of the structure, as well as the framing for the building are exposed to any heavy equipment that might be working inside the structure. If struck by this type of equipment, the walls can be easily punctured or the superstructure seriously weakened. As a consequence, many of these cone shaped buildings are now equipped with relatively expensive conveyors and the like, designed to move material in and out of the building so that heavy mobile equipment is not required to enter the structure. Special handling equipment is expensive and introduces additional loading problems.